Monday, November 22, 2010

The weather sure has gotten cold for our area of California. Temperatures dipping down to 30's and 40's this week for our lows and only a high of 60 later this week. We are also getting much needed rain.

Because of the low temperatures I have pulled out the popup greenhouse a little earlier then the last two years, not for seed starting but to protect the banana and avocado trees as well as the ginger. The past two years the banana has come inside for the winter but it is getting too big for my little living room and it had a bad case of mites last year.

While I was putting up the green house I was wondering what I was going to do with the trees once I needed the room to start my seeds. Well something would come to me when the time was right.

Plenty of room for the trees and I still have room for the rosemary and mint .

On Sunday I had to make a run to OSH (Orchard Supply Hardware). I always take a walk through the garden area even if I don't need anything just to see what's new. Much to my surprise I saw a popup green house just like the one I have now for $99.95. This is the first time I have ever seen them in a store let alone for that price. I bought mine on line three years ago and paid more than $100.00. So I did some checking on line this morning to see what they are going for and they are ranging from $129.00 on sale to $179.99. Can you say early Christmas present. Sweet Husband is off the hook for going Christmas present shopping for me this year. This is all I need and want. Oh there is one more thing I need but it's only a $10.00 item and it's for the kitchen. He gets off easy this year in the gift giving dept :-)

If you are looking for a good small (6'x6') greenhouse I can recommend this one. Easy to setup and easy to store away.

Water Project Update

With my schedule and the weather I have not been able to complete my project of adding water lines to bed 2. But I am far enough along to know that it's going to work out just as I had hoped. Here are a few photos.

Water line installed.

Ends capped for easy flushing.

I can add three different means of watering. Overhead for lettuce and carrot seeds, drip and soaker lines.

I tested the overhead sprinklers and was pleased with the results. I can't wait to finish all the beds. Watering next season will be much easier and free up some of my time.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Finally found some time to work on bed 2 today. I took apart the old bed on Oct 31st and today sweet husband made me a new bed to replace the old one.

Before bed size 9x3

All the wood was free and recycled. The redwood was left over from the new fence that was built over the summer. There is not enough to build the bed entirely out of redwood so the ends of the bed will be built using some of the wood from the old bed.

It didn't take much time to build the bed and it turned out so good.

Adding hardware cloth to the bottom of the bed was the most time consuming part of the project. But it was worth every minute to keep the moles out of the bed this spring.

The bed is now ready for me to install the water lines and soil. Would love to get that completed tomorrow but looks like it's going to rain all day.